Resume Writing 101

With the summer holidays looming in the near future, it’s a good time to dust off your résumé skills. It’s a skill you will not only need in a few months if you are looking for summer holiday jobs but also for when you are job hunting in a few years time.

Put simply: résumés showcase your unique skills, the experiences that shaped your career and to provide information about yourself. It’s important that your résumé accurately portrays who you, your experience and skills as well as standing out from the crowd. That’s why we’ve put together this quick résumé guide for you.

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Your résumé should consist of the following things; a profile, past experience, education, extra curricular activities, qualifications, skills and references. So lets jump right in and help you display the best parts of yourself.

Profile
Your profile is a short paragraph about who you are, what you do and why you are the best person for the job. In order to make this section the best that you can make it, ensure it is unique to the job that you are applying for.

Experience
Your Experience mainly consists of previous locations in which you have worked. For someone who is just starting to apply for jobs this experience may include projects you have worked on inside and outside of school, hobbies and any volunteer work you may have embarked on. When writing your experience make sure to write where you have worked, when you worked there, how long you have been there and what your role was. If you don’t have any experience include volunteer work or smaller jobs such as babysitting and explain the skills you have gained from these experiences.

Education
This is where you show where you have studied. It is important to include the school you are at now and further study you may have completed. Remember to include a blurb to show your goals and any achievements you have made at school.Qualifications
Your qualifications are things that you have obtained over your time at school, certificates out of school and anything you have earned that the employers would find helpful. If you don’t have any of these I strongly suggest you take a first aid course and apply for your police certificate. This is so you are more valuable then someone who doesn’t have these qualifications and they know initially that you are trustworthy and don’t have a prior criminal record.

Extra curricular Activities
Your extra curricular activities are important to show who you are as a person. It should contain anything you have done that you find valuable in or out of school. This just gives you an opportunity to showcase some of your skills and things that you are proud of. Remember to add the year/s that you have completed these activities

Skills
This is where you have to show the employer what they want. There are 8 employability skills that every organization looks for. These 8 skills are:

1. Communication is about being a good talker or a good writer. It involves being confident about speaking to people from different background and of different ages in any situation. It also involves writing well enough to be understood in emails and memos.

2. Teamwork means being good at working with people – both the people you work with and other people that you come into contact with in your work environment.

3. Problem-solving is about being able to find solutions when you are faced with a problem. You need to have a logical thought process and a level head to meet challenges with confidence and capability.

4. Initiative and enterprise are about being able to think creatively and to make improvements to the way things are using initiative and a sense of open mindedness.

5. Planning and organising involves working out what is required to get a job done, and then working out when and how you’ll do it. They’re also about things like developing project timelines and meeting deadlines.

6. Self-management is about getting on with your work without someone having to check up on you every five minutes. You should also be able to stay on top of your own deadlines and be able to delegate tasks to other people to make sure things get done on time.

7. Learning is about being able to understand new things and being able to pick them up quickly. It’s also about being able to take on new tasks and to adapt to different workplaces and leadership styles.

8. General technology skills that employers want include being able to use a computer for word processing and sending email, or knowing how to use a photocopier.

If you are able to produce these skills for your employer and give examples on where and when you have demonstrated them you are more likely to get the position over someone who lists general skills. Being specific and concise is key to a good resume your employer must be able to read your resume with ease. Attempt to keep you resume to 1 – 2 pages in length.

References
Your references are pretty self-explanatory. You need a third party outside of your family that has bared witness of your skills and can vouch for you. You must include their name, where the reference is from and their contact details.

I really hope this article assisted you and you now have more knowledge on how to write a résumé and how you should present yourself on paper to your employer. Go out and grab that dream job of yours.